<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>true both ways by ottermo</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23183629">true both ways</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottermo/pseuds/ottermo'>ottermo</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>As Prompted [91]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Humans (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Humans Challenge 2019, Post S3 but George is there, just go with it</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 16:20:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>662</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23183629</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottermo/pseuds/ottermo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>On the run from V, Niska goes to the first place she ever felt safe.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Niska Elster &amp; George Millican</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>As Prompted [91]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/360089</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>true both ways</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for the Humans Challenge. The prompt was “love thy father”.</p><p>George is alive in this, don’t think about it too much</p><p>All quotes are from Friedrich Nietzsche. Thanks buddy</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He’s not surprised to see her - he’s relieved. The reality of that hits Niska in a place she’d thought was long closed off and buried. “Niska,” he says, like she’s a wonder to him still, not a horror. “Come inside. Come on.”</p><p>There’s no moment of hesitation. He doesn’t glance beyond her, into the road outside. He just ushers her in, bolts the door behind her. Locks himself into his house with the most dangerous woman on earth, and this time he knows it from the outset.</p><p>“Are you in trouble?” he asks. “What can I do?”</p><p>He guides her through to the sitting room, and crosses to a drawer before she can tell him that she doesn’t charge these days, that the wire he’s fetching won’t do her any good.</p><p>“I’m safe,” she says. “They won’t find me here.”</p><p>She takes the wire anyway, winds it round her hands until her sensors complain of the pressure, than lets it spiral back again. He’s watching her, face set with concern. He seems remarkably calm for a man whose last attempt to shelter her had so nearly cost him his life. She wouldn’t be here at all, wouldn’t bring even the slightest hint of danger his way if she hadn’t been backed into a corner. If she hadn’t shut everyone else out.</p><p>“Is there someone we can call?” He sits down opposite her. “Your brother? The Hawkins girl?” He pauses. “Astrid. Let’s at least tell Astrid you’re someplace safe.”</p><p>“No,” she says, cold and stern. “None of them.”</p><p>He doesn’t argue. He doesn’t agree, either, but she isn’t asking him to; has never once expected anyone to understand why she has to close herself off, now. That if she’s ever going to undo this mess, it has to be without distraction, without fear of what the loss of her will do to them.</p><p>And it has to be here.</p><p>Here, where the last vestige of her selfishness lives among his dusty books and faded curtains; here, where V’s arrival could only mean that she has looked into memories she’s always claimed to have purged. That will be half the battle won.</p><p>“I’m sorry, George,” she says, and all he does is hold out a hand.</p><p>She takes it, holds it, tries to focus not on the meagre strength of his grip but on the unwavering strength in his eyes. He doesn’t blame her, somehow. He doesn’t know.</p><p>“You’re sorry,” he says, and almost smiles. <em>“I forgive you what you have done to me</em>,” he intones. “<em>That you have done it to yourself, however – how could I forgive that!</em>”</p><p>She slips her hand from his. “Zarathustra’s friends had simpler lives, I think.”</p><p>“What about his children?”</p><p>Niska flicks her gaze back up to meet his eyes. “What about them?”</p><p>“Do you think it’s any easier to see a daughter hurt herself for the good of others?”</p><p>She curls in on herself, just a little. “My father only ever saw me as…”</p><p>“I’m not talking about David, Niska,” he says, cutting her off. “I’m talking about myself.”</p><p>It startles her into silence.</p><p>“Whatever you’re doing,” he says, “You came here. You came to me. I don’t need to know why. Anything I can do, I’ll do.”</p><p>He knows, she thinks, that there is little he can offer. But perhaps that’s what he means: that he will lay down all he has, be the one who falls at her side, so that the others will be there for her to go back to.</p><p>She bows her head, and quotes the only sacred text they share. “<em>I love him who makes his virtue his inclination and destiny. Thus, for the sake of his virtue, he is willing to live on…</em>”</p><p>“<em>Or live no more</em>,” George finishes. “I love her, too.”</p><p>His misunderstanding is deliberate, she knows. She lets it stand. If she can help it, they’ll have more than just today to prove it’s true both ways.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>